Cunning Folk
by coldthing
Summary: Rose finds herself stranded with a dying TARDIS as her only clue to who brought her there.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Cunning Folk

Title: Cunning Folk

Author: coldthing

Fandom: Doctor Who

Summery: Rose finds herself stranded with a dying TARDIS as her only clue.

Spoilers: Up to 'Journey's End'

Rating: PG-13

Characters: Rose Tyler, The Doctor

Rose awoke to the wheezing of the TARDIS's engine, her half of the Doctor-Donna's arm slung across her waist. His hair was flattened to one side and his eyebrows were tightly drawn, she could faintly hear him grinding his teeth. It was a rare occasion when she didn't have to wake him from some earth-shattering nightmare. Sometimes he woke her up flailing and sobbing, and she would press her forehead against his and tell him it was ok, and he was safe. Slowly but surely he was slowly getting better.

            The sound of engines was gone, it had probably been a dream she decided as she turned over and stroked her hand against her Doctor's face. He relaxed into her touch. She drifted back to sleep.

999

            Her hands touches wet moss; she is thigh deep in stagnant water, her feet sliding across the slimy bottom of the pool. She staggers, haphazardly reaching out for a handhold. Her fingers touch wet metal and she pulls herself towards it, slimy tendrils of plant matter clinging to her legs. She pulls herself onto the bare metal, and almost vomits. There is an overwhelming organic stink of decay. The air is thick and humid, she's sweating, and wetness is creeping up her back.

            There was very little light; it was hazy and indistinct, not coming from any central source. As her eyes adjust she could see the details, she was pinned in by hanging plants, Spanish moss, ivy and honeysuckle wound themselves around filigreed metal.

She was in some sort of room, overgrown by rotting plants. She struggles out of the pool of water and stands up on the metal floor, picking her way through slime and plant matter.  She emerges from the curtain of plants into the control room of a TARDIS, or at least she thinks it is. The center console is half buried under a bloom of flowers that smell like rotting corpses, the column is cracked and plants are starting to crawl inside. Rose steps forward pulling plants off the consol. But they've grown into the very machinery of the TARDIS. Or out of the machinery, she thinks as she yanks the roots out of a box of wires and takes multicolored copper wires with it.  She can't tell where the wires end and the roots begin.

            She shuffles along the side, avoiding the regularly spaced pools of water in the floor, clearing the awful flowers off the console.

In the distance a deep low bell tolls a not-noise, a moving wave of vibration that shakes the plants that cling to the filigreed edges of the control room's superstructure and suddenly she can hear some one coughing and gasping. Water splashes and Rose runs towards it, almost slipping on the slick wet metal.

            It's a girl, young, no older than her, she's trying to scramble out of one of the water pools, but there are vines wrapped around her waist, hauling her back in. She scrabbles for purchase on the slick floor.

            Rose grabs the girl's arms, ripping vines away from her body and hauls the girl out of the pool.  There is blood running from her eyes that are as dark as pools of petrol. Blood is dripping from her ears.

            "Ah," the girl gasps triumphant "It worked…" she slurs.

"My name is Rose," she says supporting the girl's weight on her shoulder, she's heavier than she looks even in those skinny pants and filament thin wife beater. "Are you ok? What happened to you"?

            Half smile quirks at her mouth "My Rose" she murmurs. "You came." she coughs, dark congealed blood oozing from her mouth. "Almost there"

And then Rose can hear it, above the not-noise of the bell is the rumbling wheeze of the TARDIS's engines as it stumbles into it's landing.

Rose slips in the muck that covers the control rooms floor again, the girl landing on top of her. Somewhere on the controls the arrival chime sounds.

She struggles to her feet again, hauling the girl to her feet; she drapes her arm over her shoulder and starts to make her way across the control room. The stagnant pools are hexagons at regular intervals. She carefully skirts around them when she can and when she finally does have to step into the dark water she makes sure the girl's head is always above water.

Finally she pushes the TARDIS's door open, after the dimness of the control room the bright summer sunlight hurts her eyes. She feels the girl stagger at her shoulder, and she heaves them both out of the stinking TARDIS onto the dry leaves of a forest floor.

The girl immediately starts coughing again, blood pooling on the ground, when the convulsions finally stop the girl wipes her arm against her mouth and takes a few deep breaths.

Rose looks back at the TARDIS, it looks much like before, a few patches of fresh paint show where repairs had been made to its armor.  Tendrils of ivy are emerging from the broken windows. She can still smell rotting plant matter from here.

The girl sobs, great racking body shaking sobs that cut deep to Rose's soul. "It's dying," she rasps to no one. "No, no, no, it can't die!"  She tries to get to her feet and lunge forwards towards the police box, but she stops short and falls, her legs unable to support her weight. Rose tries to stop her as she struggles to her feet only to fall again. She starts to cough again; Rose rubs her back until the convulsions subside. This time she doesn't try to get up again, and instead huddles in Rose's arms sobbing.

"Hey, hey" Rose tells her. "Its ok, your safe" she brushes wet plant matter off the girl's cheek. She's pretty, in an odd way, with her bad haircut and nails bitten down to the quick; she's wearing black pants that fit her like they were painted on and oxblood boots. Her top is soaked though and clinging to her skin. She looks awful, blood and tears mixing on her face.

Rose doubts she looks any better herself, shivering in her wet jammies, tendrils of water plants are stuck to her legs and she's covered in mud.

"It's dying" she girl wails. "It hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts" she trails off into incoherent mumbles banging her head against her hands.

999

He's young, dark hair, dark eyes, "My name is Tidewald," he says as he helps her up. He's wearing a simple brown smock over leather breeches and boots.  A rosary hangs from the rope belt around his waist. "I come from St Agnes's over the hill. I heard terrible scream. So I came running"

Rose stares at him for a minute in shock. " My friend she collapsed. She's very sick! Can you help her" she didn't even know the girl's name, but she had a TARDIS, and she knew Rose. The TARDIS could mean any number of things. The oozing ever-encroaching plants inside made it hard to tell if it was her Doctor's, but the girl is definitely his type. Young, attractive, and hopelessly neurotic.

In her lap the girl is convulsing again, her brow is hot and sweat is beading across her forehead despite the mild weather and her wet clothes. Rose brushes her hand across her forehead smoothing her dark hair away.

Tidewald kneels down by them and puts his hand on the girl's neck, feeling for a pulse. Satisfied, he heaves her up in his arms, holding her like a bride. Rose staggers to her feet, dry leaves and grass sticking to her wet legs.

"Where are you from" he asks conversationally once they've been walking for a little while.

"Far away" Rose replies, biting her lower lip. "We're travelers"

Tidewald makes a humming noise of agreement and adjusts the girl's body in his arms.  They walked in silence for a while more before Rose dares speak again

"What year is it?" she asks

"Year of our gracious lord 992" Tidewald replies mildly. "You must have been traveling a long time to not know the year"

"Yeah" Rose replies morosely. She pulls a tendril of plant from her hair.

999

Tidewald takes them to the monastery, and calls the abbot to them. He takes the girl from Tidewald's arms and lays her on a straw mattress in a private room. Tidewald wraps a blanket around Rose's shoulders as they watch the Abbot lay his head against the girl's chest listening for a heartbeat. He cleans to congealing blood off her skin and checks for major injuries.

 She tries to move feebly but the Abbot brings a cool wet cloth to dab at her overheated skin, and tea made from valerian to make her sleep.

When he is finished he turns back to Tidewald and Rose. "You did the right thing brother" he says "She is ill in the head and heart. I need to prepare a tonic for her. Until then watch her and keep her calm" He is surprisingly young, older than Tidewald, who appears no older than Rose, but not over 40.

 Tidewald inclines his head in agreement with the Abbot and Rose nods as she wraps the rough blanket closer around her shoulders and shivers.

Tidewald rises. "I will get you some food and proper clothing" he says and shuffles out. Rose lets out a deep breath when the door closes behind him.

Even asleep the girl is restless. Rose stays by her side, taking her hand as the girl convulses and grips Rose's hand tightly.

 Tidewald brings her some dry clothes and a plate of stew and hard bread.  Rose shoos him out of the room while she changes. The girl's eyelids flicker as she shifts in her sleep. She hasn't had a chance to catch her breath.

The night begins with her asleep with her doctor, then the vague memory of the TARDIS's engines, wheezing screeching, and pumping harder than she's ever heard it before; when she opens her eyes she's plunged into the freezing water, plants grasping out at her.

"Time Scoop" the girl's eyes flicker open, her hand tightening around Rose's so tight that it hurts. "Time scoop.  To.. to.. bring you here"   her teeth clench "Needed you here, for the TARDIS…"

Rose tries to pries her hand out of the girl's grip, she could feel her bones grinding against each other as her hand tightens like a vice. "But why, who are you? Why did you bring me here? Where is my doctor?" She feels her voice crack.  " Please, let my hand go. You're hurting me"

The girl groans, her grip slackens, she tries to sit up, and Rose pushes her back down. She tries to resist and push back, but the sudden strength is gone.  " Please. In the TARDIS, my tool belt please" her eyes flicker again, and she's struggling to stay awake.  Rose holds her aching hand as the girl succumbs to the valerian again.

She finds Tidewald outside the door, shifting nervously from one foot to the other; he has an armload of blankets. "Can you watch her?" she asks, he nods and bites his lip.

Rose leaves the Monastery and makes her way back to the TARDIS. When she finds it, it seems to have put down roots, the blue painted wood contorting and delving into the ground, more vines twisting out of the windows. She can smell it dying from across the clearing. She pulls at the door, not only is it now ill fitting as it twists into the ground but she can feel the tumblers rattling in the lock.

 She still has her key; hanging on a fine gold chain around her neck like one wears a cross or good luck charm. She carefully undoes the clasp and then holding her breath she raises it to the lock.

The sound of the key sliding smoothly into the keyhole is enough to make her want to scream with joy, she turns the lock and pushes the door open.

She pushes the hanging plants aside as she picks her way through roots and debris. More vines have curled around the center console and more of the awful flowers have sprouted on the control panels. Thick root systems are spreading out across the floor weaving in and out of the inlaid filigree. Dark algae and petrol shine on the surface of the pools.

She can still hear the cloister bell in the distance and the hum of great engines under her feet. All around her the leaves rustle, she shivers and pushes a curtain of flowering clematis out of her way.

The control column is dark, and the crack is spreading across its glistening surface. She can hear her heart beat thundering in her ears. She pushes another curtain of plants out of the way and reaches for the console.

Her hands brush across the corroded metal; she feels a deep answering rumble in her bones. The TARDIS likes her; it knows her inside and out. In an uncharacteristically quiet moment after she became and un-became the entity that called itself the Bad Wolf, the Doctor sat her down in the Rain Room and calmly explained to her what had happened. She had sat at the picnic table with rain thundering around them and screamed.

So this weak rumble confirms it. This is the Doctor's TARDIS, but she had suspected as much already.

999

When Rose returns to the Monastery Tidewald greets her at the gate. "Your friend, she is awake," he says.

They find the girl awake, dried blood on her chin huddled in the corner of the room at the furthest point from the door. Her petrol black eyes flicker from Rose's face to the heavy tool belt slung over her shoulder "You got it" the momentary joy in her eyes warms Rose's heart. The girl tries to climb out of the bed, throwing the blankets aside, but only manages to stumble and fall to her knees.

"Don't move" Rose tells her as she rushes forward to catch her tiny frame. "You'll hurt yourself" she feels absurdly like mothering the girl.  But then she's got experience with little Tony playing with her fingers and guilessly pulling her hair out in chunks.

"Here, I've got you" she continues to try to stand up as Rose supports her; un-slinging the tool belt from her shoulder she sits down next to the girl on the floor.   She hands her the tool belt and the girl riffles through the pockets and straps with glee. Eventually she produces an array of tools, then she starts tinkering, slender fingers picking the pieces apart until she has a collection of gears and glowing bobbles spread out in front of her.

"What's your name anyway?" Rose asks.

The girl looks up at her, eyebrows furrowing. "Don't you know?" she asks curiously.  "Oh, you really don't do you?"

"No. " Rose replies.

The girl frowns as the tool in her hand whirrs against the metal as she starts to pull it apart. "I'm the Doctor."

It takes an hour for Rose to realize the girl isn't paying anymore attention to her, so she gets up and goes in search of Tidewald.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II

She finds Tidewald in the smithy, his face set in a hard line as he hammers a horseshoe into shape. He brightens when he sees her and plunges the horseshoe into a bucket of cold water. Steam rises around him and he grins at her.

"Is she doing better?" he asks brightly as he pulls off his gloves and unties his apron.

Rose shrugs "I think so. Her tool belt made her happy" she sits back on a nearby stool drops her head into her hands.

Tidewald wipes sweat from his forehead with a dirty rag. "Well that's something. Progress." He pulls up another stool and sits down across from her still mopping sweat off his face.

Rose sighs. " Its just that, I was with this guy, and she's like him as well. Its so confusing"

Tidewald cocks his head to the side and frowns. "I'm not quite sure I understand," he says slowly.

Rose hangs her head in defeat "Why I'm asking you, I have no idea"

Tidewald gives her a sympathetic look.

"I'm stuck in the dark ages," she continues. "And I'm asking relationship advice of a guy who's probably never touched a girl in his life"

Tidewald shrugs, he wipes soot off his chin and then smears it on Rose's cheek. "There" he says brightly "touched a girl" there is a touch of triumph in his voice.

Rose grins at him "remarkably forward thinking, you"

Tidewald grins back and tries to wipe the soot off her cheek with a rag. "I try" he replies.

Rose for a second feels secure and safe, and then some one clears their throat at the entrance to the smithy.

The Doctor stands at the door supporting her self on the doorframe. She holds a blanket around her shoulders and her bare feet are caked with mud with mud. She smiles a tight little smile. " I, uh, need tin, and umm, saltpeter and aqua regia if you have any?"

Tidewald looks at her disapprovingly; it is quite obvious she didn't have anything on under the blanket. "I can provide some tin. But you'll have to talk to Abbot about saltpeter and aqua regia"

The Doctor's lip curls. " Go stuff it you self-righteous pick" she turns on her heel and totters in the direction of the monastery's main building.

Rose stares at Tidewald, who shrugs, and then she gets up and runs after the Doctor's rapidly destabilizing form; She catches up to the smaller woman just as she teeters over and keels down into the mud. "Feck!" she says.

"Well feck you to" Rose tells her and helps her scramble to her feet, " do I need to do everything, here, come on, and you need to put on some clothes."

The Doctor looses her footing again and goes down. "Mine were wet," she sounds disinterested.

"Well you need to put on some dry ones before you see the Abbot. " Rose replies helping her up again. "I don't remember you needing this much mothering. You could manage dressing yourself last time you regenerated"

The Doctor snarls yanking her arm out of Rose's hand. "Fuck off. I don't need you yet." she pulls the blanket closer around her shoulders and stalks off leaving Rose standing astonished in the mud.

Tidewald jogs up behind her and quickly corrals her back into the smithy before she chases after the smaller women and smacks her.

999

Rose spends the rest of the day following Tidewald around helping him in the smithy, getting her hands dirty in the Abbot's herb garden and even shoveling filthy hay out of the stables, She doesn't want to talk to the Doctor, she doesn't want to see the Doctor. Ever. Again. She resolutely pushes the fact that this crazed Doctor is her only ticket back to her family, and to her Doctor to the back of her mind.

Tidewald is nice; he's sweet and sensible, exactly the kind of guy she falls for, far to good for her and completely unavailable; if they had met in the 21st century she probably would have gotten him drunk and snogged him in the bathroom.

Growing up in London all these things like gardening, or tending to livestock had seemed very inconsequential, her mum had had a friend out in Islington who had kept chickens in her back yard until she had gotten in trouble with the neighbors. Rose's mum had lamented the sudden interruption in her supply of fresh eggs.

Tidewald shoos a chicken off its nest in the dark, smelly chicken coop. With infinite care he removed two eggs and gently deposits them in the wool lined basket Rose is carrying before he moves on to the next nest.

"You need to talk to her," He says so quietly that Rose isn't even sure if he actually said something or if it was her imagination.

" Bollocks" she replies.

Tidewald shakes his head and carefully shoos another hen out of its nest, and retrieves another clutch of eggs. His progress is meticulous and painstakingly slow, each hen is carefully placed back into its nest after the monk has put the eggs gently into Rose's basket.

Rose fumes at his silent contentment. She refuses to venture near the room where the Doctor has ensconced herself for the next two days. Tidewald shakes his head and offers her his cell while he sleeps in the stable with the horses.

The young man has made several abortive attempts to mediate between the two women. These fail as the fights inevitably become spitting, screaming matches; the Doctor regards Rose and Tidewald with barely contained contempt and only tolerates them when she needs help to move from part of the monastery to another. Her health improves with every day and the less she needs Tidewald or Rose to help her around the more brittle her moods become around them.

The more Rose sees of her the more she begins to hate her. Nothing seems to be left of the old Doctor, of her Doctor. Be it the aging skinhead with hollows under his eyes or the bright exited young man she knows is probably spinning in panic worrying about her. This Doctor, this little girl, is nasty, selfish, completely unlikable and more than anything completely and utterly alien.

She eventually ventures back to the woods where the TARDIS landed, because the Doctor refuses to go near it. She can no longer open the door as thick roots have wound around the craft's body and buried themselves in the ground. And the doorframe has twisted so that the tumblers are trapped in solid unmoving wood.

Rose sits a few feet away from it and stares picks at the lichen that's is beginning to crawl up the base of the TARDIS; she rests her head in her hands and stares at it. She thinks she can see the moss and lichen creep up the side of the box. She stays there all day with tears prickling at her eyes until the evening when it begins to rain and Tidewald hurries out to find her and takes her back to the monastery.

The Doctor is waiting for them at the gate, she is dressed in the clothes Rose first saw her in, black jeans, oxblood boots and a skintight white wife beater, her arms are crossed across her chest. The slant of her hips strikes Rose as distinctly aggressive, the tool belt hangs loosely off them.

"Have fun?" she asks imperiously, Tidewald ignores her and Rose can't help but meet her blank stare

"Lots, thanks. Your TARDIS is a nice addition to the forest" she replies nastily.

The Doctor's petrol black eyes narrow at her and her mouth curls into a sneer "I'm trying to remember why I traveled with you" she says coldly.

Rose feels her cheeks heating up and her eyes prickling " What is wrong with you?" she asks desperately. "Your not my Doctor!"

The Doctor's head cocks to the side like a bird's and she makes a sound like a little hum of annoyance.

"I can feel my genetic code slowly unraveling with every second I'm in this body. My TARDIS has gone mad and is trying to kill me" her voice is cool and she strokes her dirty fingers through her dark hair. " And I am not your Doctor. Nor anyone else's for that matter. I'm mine."

Rose smacks her across the face, hard enough to leave a glowing red mark on her dirty cheek, blood trickles from the Doctor's lip. A tiny pink tongue emerges to lick it away in a gesture Rose has seen herself do millions of times. She smacks her again this time hard enough that by the next day there will be a dark bruise on the Doctor's cheek.

999

It takes her an additional two days to finally summon enough courage to confront the Doctor; she finds her sitting in the middle of her cell with the results of almost a week worth of disassembling her tools and careful machine work spread around her. She's naked except for a pair of white cotton panties and a spool of damp white linen wrapped around her hair; Her skin is covered by an uneven crosshatch of thin white scars, water droplets catch in the marks that stand out from her skin. The Doctor doesn't look up or do anything to acknowledge her.

Rose frowns in dismay. This wasn't a very good idea, and suddenly she wants to run back to the stables where she knows Tidewald is feeding the horses.

" No, I'm not putting on clothes. I can't risk the static electricity interfering with this," She says with out looking up at Rose. " And the scars are a side effect of my last regeneration, my body was blown apart by a landmine." She still hasn't looked at Rose, and is in the process of using a sonic screwdriver to solder slender panels to a circuit board. Her voice is dreamy and her mind is obviously elsewhere.

Rose feels her cheeks heat with anger. "What you said about fucking off. I'm not going to do it"

"Sure, fine, whatever." The Doctor murmurs, lost in thought. "I'll have some one get you when I need you" she pulls a delicate sliver of copper out of one of the piles in front of her and begins to attach it to the rapidly growing contraption in her hands.

Rose feels like screaming in frustration. She resolutely kneels down in front of the girl and wrenches the contraption from her hands, almost crushing it in the process.

"Hey!" the Doctor shouts her attention instantly on Rose.

"What is your problem?" Rose gets to her feet and holds it high above her head out of the Doctor's reach.

The smaller girl snarls, "at the moment, you! I need to…" She jumps up trying to grab it out of Rose's hand "…finish that before the TARDIS gets any worse"

"Fuck that! Tell me…" Rose punctuates this by taking a few steps back before the Doctor decides to tackles her and holds her down while she retrieves the device she was working on. "… What is going on!" she takes a few more steps back for good measure.

Blood dribbles down the Doctor's chin from her nose, she's hopelessly scrawny and now that she's standing up and Rose isn't worrying about playing keep-away with her she can tell that her whole body is trembling.

Realization dawns. "You're dying."

All the energy drains away from the Doctor's body, her knees wobble and she sinks back to the floor. "Meta-temporal genetic collapse… I think…." Her shoulders are shaking uncontrollably and blood starts to well up in great big tears from her eyes. " I…nothing like this has ever happened…" She stills, her eyes glazing over and rolling back into her head. Rose feels her heart quicken then seize up in her chest as the Doctor's body suddenly goes rigid and she keels forward.

Rose isn't quick enough to catch her before she cracks her head on the floor. She rushes forward and catches a flailing arm before the Doctor hits the floor again.

She's still trembling when her muscles relax. Rose rubs her shoulders until the trembling stops; she can feel the boney ridges of her shoulder blades through her skin.

It takes a few minutes before the only sound in the room is the Doctor's chattering teeth instead of her gasping and the thump of her heels against the floor

It is a few moments before the Doctor's breathing evens out and her heartbeats became steady. For a few moments the only sound in the room is the sound of their breathing.

Rose strokes her hair until the smaller women pulls away and scrambles to the other side of the room.

"Get out!" She snarls. " Never touch me again! Get out!" She curls up in the furthest corner from Rose, wiping blood off her face with the palms of her hands.

Rose gets to her feet and takes a tentative step towards her. The Doctor makes a sound like an angry rattlesnake somewhere deep down in her chest and Rose steps back in surprise.

999

"You want me to do what?" Rose feels her stomach clench up, dread builds in her stomach and she feels a bizarre need for self-preservation as if she is being threatened by the Doctor's proposal

The Doctor is reclining on the bed a blanket pulled up to her chest, there is blood crusted on the edges of her eyes and on her upper lip; her skin is ashen. "I want you to install this" The Doctor ideally motions to the slender metal box in her lap. "I am going to give you instructions"

"You want me to lobotomize the TARDIS! How can you ask me to do that?"

"No, I just need to suppress some of its executive functioning so it won't try to kill me while I repair it"

"But what will that do to you?"

The Doctor shrugs "Headache maybe, or back pain, nothing I can't handle" she picks up the metal box and slides her fingers along the side, a pair of curved spikes flick out from the bottom. "Under the center console you'll need to bypass the primary meninges to access the temporal cortex. This needs too be inserted into the left frontal lobe of the temporal cortex" She withdrew the spikes again and handed the box over to Rose.

Rose holds it like it is a living thing squirming to get out of her hands. The box is unnaturally cold and burns her fingers. "Why?"

The Doctor gives her a strange look "Because the TARIS is trying to kill me." She says as she begins to pack away her tools "It likes you; it trusts you. That's why I brought you here"

"To lobotomize the TARIDS"

"That's a really crude way of putting it" The Doctor tskes "But essentially, yes"

That feeling of threatening dread is back in the pit of Rose's stomach. She swallows compulsively.

"What will that do to me?" she asks almost dreading the answer. For those brief minutes that the Bad Wolf entity existed it had been the TARDIS, inside the TARDIS, outside the TARDIS. It became the TARDIS in every temporal branch and pocket for all time. Rose swallowed again, even if she isn't the Bad Wolf entity, she is still inexplicably linked to the TARDIS in a very visceral way that even the Doctor admitted he couldn't quite understand.

This Doctor shrugs and picks at the blood dried at the side of her mouth. "I didn't really take that into account" She says offhandedly, "I'm sure you'll be fine." She started settling back down into the bed, pulling the blanket up around her shoulders. Her eyelids drooped.

Rose turned on her heel and prepared storm out.

"Take that boy you've made friends with you and find an axe. your probably going to need it" The Doctor called as Rose slammed the door behind her.


End file.
